I've been an android user since 1.5. I've run every major revision along the line (and most minor revisions, too). There have been some great milestones, like 2.0 and 2.3. I admit to having some major aesthetic reservations with Cupcake and Donut (grey, grey, grey, and that app drawer button! ) but even though I think Android has gotten vastly more clean and attractive to look at, it's the little things I really love.

I'm running 4.1.1 on my HTC Ville, and there are tons of little usability tweaks I just love. I had been running 2.3.6 on my Vision before (with some backported Jellybean goodies, but nothing major) and while it was quite functional, there were a lot of little things I wished I could tweak, or access more easily, or just have happen automatically or more effectively.

JB adds so much goodness.

My favorite thing by far is the new notification system. Notifications can have multiple sizes and added functions (like buttons, or images). There's also improved priority management, and the ability for the user to completely disable all notifications from any app, which is AMAZING AS HELL. Goodbye, GameLoft Live notifications!

The second best thing? Project Butter. The chief bragging point iOS owners had over Android is gone. JellyBean is smooth as silk on teflon coated in 0-20 synthetic. Not just system stuff, either. Transitions from application to application are quick, smooth, and responsive. Screen rotation animations are quick and natural and smooth. Everything is fast and stutter-free.

Also on the list of awesome:
Google Now. A genuinely useful combination of voice commands, personalized search, and customized dynamic information feed. The voice search is impressive, and the way it returns results feels very natural. The personalization makes it even more effective (I found nicoclub.com with a single voice search, just by saying the url...but it IS one of my bookmarks).

Offline voice input. Unlike iOS and Android 4.0 and earlier, Jellybean lets users type or command with their voice without a data connection. My week in Anaheim (a place where T-mobile high speed data coverage is spottier than the pope. Or holier. One of those.) showed me just how useful that was. I could still dial and text and search for media, apps, and functions without worrying about data coverage. And as a bonus, I wasn't wasting bandwidth.

I <3 Android.

So you're telling me I need to root and get this on my VZW GNex immediately?

Oh Hell yes. Absosmegginglutely.

MinisterofDOOM wrote:(a place where T-mobile high speed data coverage is spottier than the pope. Or holier. One of those.)

Lul.

MinisterofDOOM wrote:The second best thing? Project Butter. The chief bragging point iOS owners had over Android is gone. JellyBean is smooth as silk on teflon coated in 0-20 synthetic. Not just system stuff, either. Transitions from application to application are quick, smooth, and responsive. Screen rotation animations are quick and natural and smooth. Everything is fast and stutter-free.

I <3 Android.

OMG THIS!

Mess with some lines of code while changing processor core priority and JB essentially is ready for any inputs at any time; super smooth navigation experience. Only down side to rooters is that you can't use Google Play or app store =(. But you root so you can put free or paid apps on your phone for free, way to go Google

MoD I am disappoint, no crazy wall of text?

Ive got the EVO 3D CDMA, they are finaly pushing ICS today. Im wondering if they will push JB at some point. I rooted my phone, so I may put JB on it once they have a working CM, which I read yesterday that CM11 should be the JB version.

CM10 isJB. It's what I'm running right now.

Ah nice, I might try to port it in then. Imma run ICS for a bit first though, its already a superb improvement over gingerbread!

I was very pleased with ICS after Gingerbread. It certainly didn't disappoint. Aesthetically it's largely the same...very clean, high-contrast, 2D, not busy trying to be shiny and pretty but content to be easy to read and sharp and functional.

Is the ICS to JB difference as astounding as the GB to ICS difference was?

It is, but for completely different reasons. ICS was an in-your-face improvement, full of lots of obvious stuff you see and touch and hear. JB is almost exclusively behind-the-scenes, little stuff and optimizations that make everything else work better.

Cool, I notice when things work faster and smoother

Chris, which ROM are you running? I'm seriously tempted, but at the same time I'm hesitant to spend much time tweaking things to my liking. I did that when I had an iPhone (as it was required), but part of the reason I switched to android is I didn't want to have to go the trouble of rooting (or jailbraking in the iPhone realm) to make the phone function as I wanted it.

I'm running CM10 (an unofficial build, since my phone is not supported).

I just rooted last weekend, and tried out CM10. I've got the new EVO 4G LTE, so obviously one of the key selling points on the phone was the camera, and CM10's camera was a MAJOR disappointment. Other than that, I fugging LOVED JB. Also notable was the lack of a visual voicemail through Sprint. I really can't wait for CM10 to upgrade the camera, as I'm sure VVM can be ported through an apk. My phone is on the nightlies, so I'm keeping tabs on it. For now though, I'm using FreshEvo, which is essentially a customizable version of the stock ROM that runs wayyyy more bare-bones, and averages about 120MB more free memory at any given time. The camera was just too bad for me to put up with on CM10. Otherwise, awesome, awesome ROM.

Ace2cool wrote:Also notable was the lack of a visual voicemail through Sprint. I really can't wait for CM10 to upgrade the camera, as I'm sure VVM can be ported through an apk.

Forget carrier voicemail. Download Google Voice. Visual voicemail that integrates directly with Android's call history. Free.

Nooooope. Eff Google voice. I tried that crap last year and it was so glitchy and never worked correctly. Unless they have made MAJOR improvements in the last year, I'm good.

My desire for a Nexus 4 has been somewhat lessened by this:


It's so nice to FINALLY have quick settings on my phone (I've been on 4.1 for a LONG time due to a lack of stable 4.2 ROMs). I've gotten so used to them on my Nexus 7 that even the CM/AOKP style notification power toggles were starting to feel clunky. Enhanced notification support is another huge bonus.

Also: Dashclock alone is worth the upgrade to 4.2. Great lockscreen clock AND a great scalable/resizeable/configurable homescreen clock.

I tried going back to CM10, but the stable build they released wouldn't boot on my phone. Which is weird, cause the nightlies used to work fine. I wanted Google Now, and a couple other things that CM10 offered. I just don't know if I can get over the camera.

Because the nightly is running so well on my phone, I decided to try it on my N7. Unfortunately (likely because it's "just" a nightly) most of the customization options I REQUIRE from my ROM are missing. Most critically, the navbar customization. The interface is sure slick, but the actual customization options are pathetic. No long-press settings, no height/width adjust. There are plenty of options for the hard-keys on my Ville, but for the software keys on the N7 all I can do is move them around.

So I went back to AOKP until a proper CM release hits. AOKP 4.2 build 3 is kinda sluggish, so I hope either CM releases something more complete soon, or Build 4 of AOKP hits and cleans things up.

Yeah, I don't have any fancy unicorn support for Jewel.